[ILUG] nForce4 and Linux

[John Madden]

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On (02/04/05 12:47), Paul Reilly didst pronounce:
> 
> Is anyone using one of the new nForce4 chipset based boards with
> Linux? I'm reading conflicting reports of how compatible it is.
> Has anyone any experience with the nvRAID SATA2 support offered by
> nForce4? Does it work? It looks like the software bit is only available
> for windows.
> 
I'm using it here on an AMD64 machine. It works, but for a value of
"works" that some people dislike. The Linux support is offered by
proprietary NVidia drivers for the LAN and sound on the board. The board
I have is an MSI K8N Neo.

I'm not using nvRAID, but am using the SATA interfaces, which are
supported by a slightly modified sata_nv driver in the kernel. There's a
one line change to be made so the drives don't lock up. On top of this
then, I'm using Linux software RAID, which works perfectly. The one line
change is in sata_nv.c on line 224 (kernel 2.6.9 from the
kernel-source-2.6.9 package for debian) -- simply comment out
ATA_FLAG_SATA_RESET, which is what causes the drives to lock up.

The LAN is supported by the proprietary nvnet driver supplied by NVidia,
or using the forcedeth driver in the kernel. I've been using the nvnet
driver, but am going to give the forcedeth module a run now, just to
test it. It seems to support the card, since I've just tried it and
still have network connectivity.

Lastly, the onboard sound is supported either by the proprietary
nvsound module, again supplied by NVidia, or the snd_intel8x0 kernel 
module. The nvsound module only supports OSS, but snd_intel8x0 gets the 
card working for ALSA. 

I'm running debian-amd64 on this system, and I've got no complaints.
Hope this helps.

- -- 
Chat ya later,

John.
- --
BOFH excuse #58: high pressure system failure
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